Less than 24 hours to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup
With less than 24 hours to go, the excitement is building in anticipation of the Women’s Rugby World Cup. The tournament has been long awaited by many of us, following its postponement in 2021.
The team at Wooden Spoon is particularly excited as we look forward to watching Wooden Spoon ambassador and Red Rose, Sarah Bern representing England and three Wooden Spoon Marauders, Lowri Norkett, Donna Rose and Ffion Lewis representing Wales this year.
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All teams will be hoping to take the title from one of the most successful rugby teams in the world, and the defending champions and hosts, New Zealand.
England start as favourites, after a successful run in to the tournament, with the longest winning streak in men’s or women’s internationals, but reigning champions New Zealand have seen some impressive score lines in the warm up games.Wales play their first tournament as professionals but have not recorded a win since beating Scotland in the Six Nations. Scotland are competing on the world stage for the first time since 2010. Despite a loss in their most recent game against USA in August, Scotland will be ready for their home nations clash against Wales on Sunday.
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So it’s everything to play for, for our three Home Nations competing. And the teams will not just be aiming for victory, but also to increase the profile of the sport and get more women and girls playing. Following the Rugby World Cup in 2017, there was a 28% increase in the global female playing population and we hope to see more of the same with this year’s tournament.
As we have shown with many of the projects we have funded at Wooden Spoon from the Premiership HITZ programme to wheelchair rugby, this amazing sport can be life-changing for vulnerable children and young people and we only want more young people to have the opportunity to get involved.
So Good Luck to all the teams competing and our Wooden Spoon ambassadors, we’re behind you every step of the way.
You can keep up to date with our inside take on the Women’s Rugby World Cup by following us on our social channels, Instagram and twitter.